Author Brad Meltzer got creative when he received a rash (and I mean a rash) of bad reviews for his new release, The Book of Lies. Check it out. Ain’t his grandmother cute?

I’m getting into a bad habit of titling blog posts with question marks, but if I can suck it up, so can you. Ain’t I a peach?

My friend (other than in the MySpace sense) and Young Adult author, Shelley Adina, has MySpace pages for each of the characters in her All About Us book series. Check out Lissa’s MySpace page (Gillian’s, Carly’s, Shani’s and Mac’s pages can all be accessed from Lissa’s Friends Space.) I do believe you or your teenager of choice can friend Shelley’s characters, too.

You know what the coolest thing is? Shelley didn’t have to create these pages, not does she have to update them. Her publisher did and does it for her. Sounds like they’re behind her, huh? And check out those gorgeous covers. You go, Shelley!

What do you think about the MySpace promotion? Personally, I think it’s very clever. I don’t think I would create MySpace pages for my own characters, but then I don’t write Young Adult novels. If I did write Young Adult novels, then I think it’s a wonderful idea. MySpace drives me crazy enough with the two sites I maintain for myself and Penny without adding pages for my characters into the mix.

By the way, I tried putting an accent grave (to the left) over the e in tres, but the instructions someone gave me aren’t working.

Plus, the instructions are for accent aigu (to the right), anyway. From now on, when I write tres, just take it for granted that you should pronounce it “tray.” With a little roll of the R, if you please, and a touch of Pepe Le Peux flair. Thank you.

Have I mentioned that several/many/more than half of the members of the 2007 group of Golden Heart finalists (the ‘007s) are opening a group blog? It revolves around a bit of a Bond theme, so we’ve dubbed it Nobody Writes it Better (I won’t blab who offered that title when we were brainstorming, but let me just say it was someone very smart, initials of M.E.)

Okay, it can be argued that Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Crusie et. al. might write it better, but we have the URL, so there.

Right now we’re waiting for quotes from designers, so no word on the launch date, but we have a placeholder page on-line, if you want to bookmark the site. And if the graphic on the placeholder site looks remarkably similar to a business card you picked up at National, that’s because it is the business card, which accounts for the “Check Site” after “Launch Date.” That said, we’re targeting the blog to readers as well as reader/writers.

We’re all very excited. Watch this space for more information, doled out as sanity permits.

I love Jill Monroe and Gena Showalter’s Author Talks, but this one takes the cake! Make sure to watch all the way to the end.

Oooh, I think I’ve mentioned before that I love eights. I know my blog defaults the date to August 8, 2008, so I had to bring attention to the triple eights in the blog title. Note that I also set the blog to post at 8:08 a.m.! Yes, I’m obsessive, but only in a nice way, I assure you.

Today, as promised, I’m posting pictures of Conference. First up, the ChickLit party, held Wednesday night at Annabelle’s Bar and Bistro in the Mosser Hotel across the street from the Marriott (the conference hotel).

Left to Right, Heather Roth, Kelli Estes, and Christina Arbini.

I first met Heather at the ChickLit party in Dallas last year. However, she was Heather Dodge then. Now she’s wearing a bunch of sparkly on her finger that has transmorphed her into Roth. Why is Heather so memorable, you ask? Because she convinced myself and Lexi Connor, among others, to imbibe in Lemon Drops at the bar in Dallas last year until the ungodly hours of the morning. I stayed up way too late and had to wake up at 6 the next morning for a group breakfast. Heather did not get me in her clutches this year, although I was tempted. The tiredness from this damn summer cold was already creeping in.

Kelli is a new ChickLit chapter member and Christina is a member of the Dancing Divas, from way back in Reno (you had to be there).

Thursday Pictures:

Moi and Kathleen Irene Paterka

Kathleen was nice enough to buy a copy of Penny’s first book at the Literacy Autographing for a friend. Kathleen and I have known each other in email for years—how nice to put a face to a name.

 With my Red Sage editor, Theresa Stevens, at the Red Sage Coffee Mixer.

Fellow Red Sage authors, Leigh Court and Mia Varano.

Mia Varano with publisher Alexandria Kendall at the Red Sage author dinner held at Roy’s. Yum!

Mia and I also had dinner together on Tuesday night, plus she made me walk all the way to the Coit Tower Wednesday morning, earning Moi a tiny blister on my pinky toe of right foot that required band-aids for the duration of conference. Bad, bad Mia. However, I must confess, it was my idea to visit the Coit Tower. But! It was her idea to walk.

Friday:

Amber Quill Author Dinner: Karin Story, Natalie Damschroder, and Karin’s mom!

Karin is my editor at Amber Quill. Yes, she’s responsible for the brilliance of my books! Actually, I’m responsible, but she keeps me on the straight and narrow (you didn’t think I’d let her hog all the credit, did you?). Natalie is a fellow Amber Quill author I’ve known on the loops for years. She’s also a fellow Capricorn, which naturally endears her to Moi.

Fellow Amber Quill authors Linda McLaughlin and Caitlyn Willows.

Note that I sport the same squishy-eyed grin in every photo!

I really missed catching up with my buddy, Jamie Sobrato. We were supposed to have dinner Saturday night, but she fell ill and had to cancel. Sob. I did run across her a few times during the conference, but I’m used to seeing her a lot at conference, so now I’m suffering Jamie Withdrawal. Anyone have a cure?

Thanks also to my roomie, Natale Stenzel, for putting up with me (or was that the other way around?) Heh, heh. 

First up, Middlesex. If you haven’t read this book yet and you love literary fiction, what are you waiting for? What an exemplary read! This is another book The Queen of Sheba brought home from her winter in Mexico. She thought it would suit my tastes, so she passed her copy to me. I devoured Middlesex, and I ain’t giving back the book! It’s nothing like Middlemarch, which I was forced to read for the Lit degree, so don’t let the similar titles fool you. Jeffrey Eugenides won the Pulitzer Prize for Middlesex in 2002, and the story hooked me from the beginning, so it’s easy to see why.

Middlesex is the story of a child mistakenly labeled a girl at birth who grows into a teenage boy. It bounces between the present, where the adult Cal struggles with revealing his biological truths, so to speak, to his would-be female lover, and the past, depicting the family history in Greece and then America and following Cal as Calliope through her tumultuous adolescence. Honestly, compelling stuff. It’s going on my keeper shelf.

Numero deux (I don’t know how to make the accent over the E in the first word so just trust me when I say I’m typing French and not Italian or Spanish), Natural Born Charmer, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. After two commenters in my I Need Me More S.E.P. blog raved about Ms. Phillips’ latest offering, I couldn’t help myself. I had to zip out and buy it, and I consumed it a couple of weeks ago. Natural Born Charmer does not disappoint. The story features Dean Robillard, who was a secondary character in Match Me if You Can, and Dean is a member of the Chicago Stars football team that figures in a great number of Phillips romances. But Natural Born Charmer isn’t set in the world of football. It’s set, for the most part, in Tennessee. It’s pure characterization, great story, and wonderful romance. The secondary plot between rocker Mad Jack Patriot and Dean’s mother April is very enjoyable, too.

Third up, Their Secret Child, by Mary J. Forbes. I interviewed Mary a few weeks ago for my website, but didn’t get a chance to read her latest offering from Silhouette Special Edition until last week. Mary and I are former critique partners and friends (well, we’re still friends and quite good ones at that), so some might say I am naturally inclined to love her work. However, Their Secret Child has hit #10 on the Waldenbooks Series Romance Bestsellers list, so clearly I’m in good company.

I have to say, I think this is my favorite of all Mary’s books. She develops the secret baby hook perfectly, and, in my opinion, there is not one wasted word. SSEs have shortened in word length in the past year or so, which can be challenging for some authors accustomed to writing books 5000 - 10,000 words longer than what the line now publishes. Mary J. Forbes rises to the challenge, delivering an emotionally satisfying romance. Hurrah!

The movie? I heartily recommend Hancock starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron. My Liege and I went to see it recently. Now, it’s very difficult for me not to enjoy a Will Smith movie, and it’s not just because one of my old high school friends once shared a scene with him in another film (honest! tres cool, huh?) (drat, don’t know how to put the accent over the E in tres, either). Hancock is the story of a super hero who doesn’t give a crap…and why he should. I won’t say anything else, because the fun of this movie is learning the why behind the first part of my description and the how of the second. Or something like that. Really, after my clever logline, you expect me to continue to deliver? I have my limits!!

There’s only one thing I didn’t like about Hancock, but I’m putting it in white font because it’s a spoiler. Highlight the following paragraph if you want to read the spoiler. And, don’t forget, I am WARNING YOU that I’m including a spoiler:

Okay, Charlize Theron is supposedly a super-hero character like Will Smith’s character. They have skin of steel. Needles bend when they try to get injections, etc., etc. The only time one of them could get injected or, let’s say, get their ears pierced, would be when they’ve gotten close to one another and therefore begin losing their super powers. However, whenever they get close to one another and start losing their powers, that’s when the bad guys of the world try to kill Hancock. So, what I want to know is, why, why, WHY show the Charlize Theron character wearing big, huge, dangly pierced earrings in a scene where her skin WOULD be tough as steel to pierce because she and Hancock’s character are separated. I can not fathom that Charlize’s character would have chosen one of the episodes where she and Hancock are fighting for their lives against bad guys (ie. when they get too close together) to take a break and go off and get her ears pierced. These types of inconsistencies really bother me in movies. Don’t get me started on Pretty Woman.

Spoiler Rant done!

Any books or movies you wanna recommend? 

Agent Elaine Spencer has an excellent post up at Kwana Writes about the possibility of your novel getting made into a movie. The prospects are not great, but the post is very comprehensive about explaining why.

That’s not to say the news is entirely dismal. But the movie production industry works very differently from publishing, and what looks excellent on paper might not translate well to film, yada, yada. That said, it does happen, and not just for Stephen King. Gemma Halliday’s HIGH HEELS MYSTERIES series is being developed into a TV series for the USA Network, and Ally Carter’s Young Adult novel, I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU has been optioned for film.

Have you read any books you think would make excellent movies? What are they, and why do you believe they would translate well to film?

Well, I’m not profiling Kate St. James. But Candy Ready is. This week is Kate St. James Week at www.candyready.com. And seeing as Kate is not only a wonderful writer but a fantastically close friend, I’m passing along the news.

Candy is interviewing Kate today and tomorrow, then Wednesday will feature an excerpt from Kate’s first Secrets novella, Good Vibrations (out now, in Secrets Volume 21: PRIMAL HEAT, for those not in the know), and Thursday will feature an excerpt from Kate’s upcoming novella, Exes & Ahhs, appearing in Secrets Volume 26: BOUND BY PASSION, December 2008. Yes, that’s a long time to wait for the anthology, but Kate’s excerpt will wet your whistle! Caution, though, these excerpts are for Adult eyes only. If you’re under 18, Candy doesn’t want you visiting her website and Kate suggests you buy her books as soon as you reach your 18th birthday…and not one second sooner.

Friday features a giveaway! Kate will mail a free autographed copy of Secrets Volume 21: PRIMAL HEAT, which includes her novella, Good Vibrations, to one lucky commenter who comments this week on Candy Ready’s blog.

Over and out.